RIMERSBURG — Down by 21 points early in the fourth quarter, the Union boys basketball team started playing like, well, the Union boys basketball team that had won 20 games this season.

The Golden Knights cut that Elk County Catholic lead to nine in less than two minutes.

It was too little, too late, however. The hole Union had dug in the first three quarters was just too deep in a 59-38 loss to the Crusaders in the District 9 Class A quarterfinals at Union High School Friday night.

“I think we just ran out of gas there in the end,” said Union coach Karen Davis. “At least we put a push on them there in the end.”

Union (20-4) picked up where it left off after a Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference championship game loss to Clarion-Limestone.

The Golden Knights had a poor second half in that game and had a very poor three quarters against Elk County Friday.

Union fell behind 11-2 in the first quarter and trailed 27-12 at the half.

Elk County was determined to take away the Golden Knights' top two scorers this season, guards Taylor Smith and Brody Pollock.

The Crusaders more than succeeded, holding the Union duo to just nine points combined.

“Taylor Smith is a shooter and I thought we did a real nice job taking him away,” said Elk County coach Aaron Straub. “And Brody Pollock may be inch for inch the best player in the district.

“In all fairness to Union, they didn't shoot the ball very well tonight,” Straub added. “When you don't shoot the ball well, you press a little bit and when you press a little bit, your shooting becomes even more off.”

While Smith and Pollock were bottled up, Aaron Graham and Austin Davis nearly brought Union back in the early part of the fourth quarter.

Graham and Davis each scored six points in the first three minutes of the fourth to close the Elk County lead to 47-38 with 5:19 left in the game.

Union, though, missed its next 13 shots and didn't score again.

“It was frustrating,” Davis said. “But to be honest with you, I don't think we've played real well since the A-C Valley game (on Feb. 13).”

Davis said the loss of junior guard Brody Shick to a knee injury in January hurt her team.

“Losing Shicky made a big difference,” Davis said. “When he went out, we didn't play real well after that.”

This was the last game on the bench for Davis, who announced earlier this year that she would step down as coach after this season.

Davis, who won 203 games as the girls coach at the school, was 138-85 as the Union boys coach in nine seasons.

Davis said she will have no regrets about leaving.

“I pondered this and went over this and I'm fine with it,” Davis said. “I'm not going to sit and bawl about it. I've been very lucky with the kids I've had and the parents I've had. It's been great.”

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC 59Clayton Housler 9-14 6-10 24, Ben Wortman 4-6 1-2 9, Brock McCullough 4-7 0-0 8, Alex Herzing 2-5 1-4 7, Hank Cappiello 2-3 0-0 5, Brandon Schlimm 0-5 0-0 0, Mitchell Villone 0-0 0-0 0, Michael Jacob 3-7 0-0 6, Jack Herzing 0-0 0-0 0, Kevin Kraus 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Cortina 0-0 0-0 0, Devin Constable 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 24-47 8-16 59.

UNION 38Taylor Smith 2-7 2-3 6, Brody Pollock 1-8 1-2 3, Kaden McGregor 1-6 0-0 2, Austin Davis 4-12 4-5 12, Aaron Graham 3-6 3-5 10, Mikey Harris 1-3 2-2 4, Wanya Harris 0-3 0-0 0, Brandon Tyson 0-0 0-0 0, Shawn Hazlett 0-0 0-0 0, Derek Priester 0-0 0-0 0, Jake Stewart 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals: 12-45 12-17 38.

Elk County Cath. 11 16 15 17—59Union 7 5 11 15—383-point goals: Elk County Catholic 3 (A. Herzing 2, Cappiello); Union 2 (Davis, Graham).